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Articles published in Eurozine
Richard Rorty
An obituary
Richard Rorty can be placed alongside Hume, Montaigne, and Wittgenstein in a tradition of dissident philosophy, writes Jan Philipp Reemtsma. All wanted to put an end to the traditional philosophical discussion, but have become, in one way or another, part of the philosophical establishment. [Turkish version added] [more]
Coriolanus' Oedipal curse and the question of tragic redemption
Why do tragic heroes continue to provoke our wonder? It is no reactionary response to the drift of partiality in contemporary philosophy, nor is it a nostalgic return to a less complex and sophisticated era. Oedipus and Coriolanus provide the unity that is missing from our theoretical discourse, writes Bernard D. Freydberg. [more]
Democracy and philosophy
Moral insight "is a matter of imagining a better future, and observing the results of attempts to bring that future into existence". In "Kritika&Kontext", Richard Rorty (1931-2007) outlines the anti-foundationalist premise of his philosophy. [Turkish version added] [more]
Must we respect religiosity?
On questions of faith and the pride of the secular society
Secular society's "supermarket of faiths" principle appears from religion's standpoint to be indifferent and mistaken. Jan Philipp Reemtsma searches for the basis for the respect between believer and non-believer that can prevent this tension from becoming intolerance. [more]
Esotericism in the nineteenth century
The crisis of European consciousness following the French Revolution and the imperial wars ushered in a "new science" that permitted spiritual speculation unburdened by the dogma of religious exegesis. [more]
Contradiction, transcendence, and subjectivity in Derrida's ethics
On Derrida's ethical philosophy and its indebtedness to Kierkegaard, Levinas, and J. L. Austin. [more]
Neighbourly relations as a resource for violence
Neighbourhoods' potential for violence can be instrumentalized by politics, be it in surveillance regimes or ethnic-national movements. A popular comic strip delivers an insight into the tensions inherent in neighbourly relations. [more]
There is never a psychopathology without the social context
An interview with Juliet Mitchell
British feminist and psychoanalyst Juliet Mitchell talks to Cogito about her role in the British New Left and her intellectual trajectory from Marxism to psychoanalysis. [more]
The post-oriental condition
Serbs and Turks revisited
The Balkans and Turkey are a space on the borders of Europe marking a cultural encounter with the Oriental. Constituted as an undeclared enemy, this object of anxiety acts as a catalyst for collective cohesion, eliciting mythic narratives that call for exclusion from the symbolic realm of the European community. [more]
The neighbour and the state
Understanding the cultural history of neighbourly conflict in Turkey
Any discussion of conflict between Turkey and its neighbours, including the so-called Armenian question, must take into account the social organization of the Ottoman period, says political columnist Etyen Mahçupyan. [more]
The democratic neighbour
Politics of human rights in an enlarged Europe
The politics of human rights had its heyday in Europe in the 1990s; today, it is held responsible for a variety of ills. The editor of Esprit defends democracy's radical commitment. [more]
European Union, Europeanness, and Euro-Turks
Hyphenated and multiple identities
A sociological analysis of the perspectives of Turks living in France and Germany on the EU and Europeanness undermines the view that they are nationalistic and essentialist. [more]
Myth, word, and writing
An interview with Jack Goody
On structuralist approaches to myth-making in oral cultures; the pitfalls of biologistic theories of language development; and how the difference between "naming" and "discovering" affects an understanding of western ideology. [more]
Melancholy and the "other"
Freud analyzed melancholia as the ego's internalization of the lost object, and thus the loss of ego itself. Can the architecture of the "geographic other" be read for the symptoms of melancholy? [more]
Interview with Alain Touraine
Why Europe's future depends on establishing better relations with the Islamic world. [more]
On "Snow White"
Suicide attacks in Istanbul and the need for poetry
How art and poetry can twist our preconceptions on acts of terror. [more]